by Anya Bast
She touched her hair, which she’d tucked under her handkerchief while she’d cleaned, and grimaced. Oh, well, there wasn’t much she could do about her appearance at this point. She opened the door to find Michael and Christian standing there, both with bags of groceries in their hands.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, still holding a cleaning rag in her hand.
“It’s dinnertime.” Christian jerked his head toward the brown fabric sack he carried. “We came to feed you.”
She took a step back into the foyer to allow them through. Her annoyance at their presumption was tempered by the fact her stomach was growling and she didn’t have much in the house at the moment. “How did you know I’d be home? I could be out with Carolyn or something right now.”
Christian and Michael exchanged a look. Michael caught her gaze. “We have to talk to you about that.”
She wrinkled her brow at him. “Okay, but can I wash up first? I’ve been cleaning all day.”
Christian headed for the kitchen. “Go ahead while we start dinner.”
“Take your time.” Michael’s gaze lingered on her for a moment longer before he followed Christian down the hall.
She watched them go, perplexed. It actually appeared they’d gone shopping at the local farmer’s co-op and now they were going to cook…together? She wasn’t sure her heart could stand it if they’d joined forces.
After she’d cleaned up and dressed in a soft sweater and a pair of jeans, she returned downstairs to find the dining room table set and delicious scents wafting from her kitchen. She dragged a wide-toothed comb through her hair as she entered the room. “Yum. What are you making?”
Christian turned from tending something on the stove. “Steak with roasted veggies and potatoes.”
She smiled. Sounded like a meal a man would choose. “I’m starving.”
“Good. It’s almost ready.”
Once dinner was served, they sat down at the table and began to eat. “So, you two just decided to come on over here and make me a meal, huh?” she asked, her gaze sliding between the two men.
Christian shrugged. “Why not?”
“It’s just that I didn’t have the impression either of you were all that happy to be named two men to one woman by the council.”
“It’s reality,” Michael answered. “We’re dealing with it.” He jerked his head at Christian. “He had the day off from the construction site and stopped over this morning to talk to me about some things. We could tell you were feeling a little sad today. That’s when we made plans to come here tonight and see you.”
She set her fork down. “Sad? How could you know that?”
They exchanged another look.
“Michael, Christian, just tell me.”
Michael cleared his throat. “We’re hoping this doesn’t freak you out, but Christian and I have developed some kind of psychic link to you. We can tell where you are and what sort of emotions you’re experiencing. We think it’s a result of the bond between us.”
She remembered that eerie sensation that she’d known they’d been about to ring her doorbell. Still, she had nothing like a psychic link to them. She drew a steadying breath. “And you have that because you’re supes?”
“We think so.”
“Is that…normal?” Not that anything about this situation was normal, really.
Christian and Michael looked at each other. “We’ve never heard of it happening before.”
“And you and Michael don’t have it between yourselves?”
Christian crinkled his face and glanced at Michael. “Hell, no. Look, Michael is a nice-looking guy and all, but I don’t swing that way.”
“Neither do I,” Michael growled.
She held up her hands. “Okay, guys, okay. Chill out, please.” She picked up her fork and began eating again.
“Uh, Michael,” Christian ventured, “she’s taking that news a lot better than we thought she would.”
She glanced up from her plate. “I am still in the room, you know.”
“Why are you taking it so well, Kylie?”
She shrugged. “I’m so past the point of weird it’s not even funny. I have to take this stuff as it comes.” She looked between them. “I’m not sure I like the fact you guys will always know how I’m feeling, though.”
“We think it’s a consequence of the bond being forged between us,” answered Michael. “It allows us to protect you by knowing your location and always know where you stand emotionally so that we can support you.”
She considered him. Michael seemed much more sensitive than Christian, yet every bit as protective of her.
“When did this psychic link thing start to happen for you?” she asked them.
Christian took a sip of his beer and set the bottle back on the table. “For me, it happened after our date.”
“Me too,” answered Michael. “After last night.”
Her eyebrows rose into her hairline. Riiiight, after she’d had sex with each of them. Her face flushed as she realized she’d slept with both these men during the last forty-eight hours.
Most women would be really jealous of her.
She took a bracing sip of her water. It was sweet and pure, from a well on her property. “Okay,” she breathed. “It’s all good.”
“It is?” Michael asked. “You seem uneasy.”
She laughed. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you?”
Christian glanced toward the barn. “How’s the art coming?” Apparently he thought it best to change the subject. Probably wise at this point.
“I’m almost done with the piece I’ve been working on since…Louis.” Her heart made a little dip that she now knew both these men would sense. She cleared her throat and took another drink of water. “I’ll finish it up on a day that’s not so cold and rainy.” Maybe. She pushed her food around on her plate. They might be able to feel her emotions, but they shouldn’t be able to tell when she was lying.
Christian changed the subject again, this time to the topic of the construction job his company was working in Sweet Rock. Soon they were on comfortable, mundane topics, talking of the regulars in the Twisted Kiss and some of the characters in the town where they’d all grown up.
“Remember old Mr. Addison?” asked Michael, sitting back in his chair and pushing his plate away.
“That old wolf? Didn’t a vampire get him in the last skirmish?” asked Christian. Every once in a while, the conflict between the vamps and wolves flared into little miniwars, not unlike gang fights.
“He was found trying to kill one of my kiss, a pregnant woman.” Michael nodded. “Yep, a vamp got him.” He paused. “Really, really got him.”
Christian snorted. “I’m not surprised. He was a nasty piece of work. Some of the old ones are. They remember so much of their lives before the virus turned them that they’re bitter. Take their hate out on everyone around them instead of just accepting what they can’t change. Are the older vamps like that?”
Michael nodded. “Sure. I think that affects us all.”
“Everyone but humans,” Kylie broke in. “We’re just plain bitter.”
Christian offered her a lazy smile that made her stomach do a slow flip. “You’re not, Kylie.”
“My dad was. Seems like lots of humans are.”
“What was your dad bitter about?”
“My mom’s death.”
The room went silent. Finally Michael said, “Everyone’s got reason to be bitter over a loved one’s death. The virus left a path of carnage that will never be forgotten.”
Kylie raised her glass. “To never forgetting those who have gone before us, be they human, vampire or were.” Her mind was on Louis as she looked between the men. Michael held her gaze, seeming to understand that.
“I’ll drink to that,” said Christian, raising his glass.
They all clinked glasses and drank deeply.
The skies grew darker and the rain began to come down harder. Eventually, they rose and c
leared the table.
She returned from the kitchen to collect more dishes and Christian passed her in the entryway, closer than he needed to be. The scent of him, leather and the faintest whiff of his cologne, made her stomach do another slow flip.
Gathering the last of the dishes, she returned to the kitchen to enjoy the sight of two gorgeous, hunky men cleaning up. She helped them by wiping down the counters, only to be lifted bodily by Christian and set into one of her kitchen chairs.
He wagged his finger at her. “Sit. We’re both bachelors and know how to handle ourselves in here. No worries.”
So she relaxed and watched them move. There was something oddly sexy about watching two muscular men doing such domestic tasks. Her eyes were drawn—as always—to the way their arms and chests flexed when they performed even the smallest of movements.
Was it wrong that watching these men clean her kitchen turned her on? Of course, watching these particular men do just about anything turned her on.
Michael leaned against the counter when they were done and looked out into the night-dark sky. It was still raining.
“Did you come over here on your cycle?” she asked him. Michael driving his cycle in the rain concerned her. He was a vamp, all big and strong, but he wasn’t immortal. It jarred her how much the thought of his getting hurt bothered her.
“No.” He jerked his head toward Christian. “He came over to yell at me. We made peace and decided to come over here together.”
“Yell at you?” She looked at Christian “About what?”
“You, of course.” Christian grinned. “It’s pretty much all we have in common.”
“I bet you have more than that in common.”
“Maybe.” Christian glanced at Michael. “I gotta say that as vamps go, he’s not a bad one.”
Michael grinned. “Thanks for the high praise.”
“No problem.”
Christian walked over to her and pulled her from her chair. She gave a little surprised cry when she ended up flush against his chest. “You’re more than enough anyway.” He dropped his head and kissed her, his lips slanting over hers slowly and then parting to allow the slip of his tongue.
She melted against him, her hands gripping his upper arms. For a moment, she worried about Michael, who was standing in the kitchen watching both of them, but then Christian’s kiss deepened and she couldn’t worry after that—or think.
He pulled her away from the table and held her close, taking his time with the kiss, exploring her tongue with his and making little sounds like she was the best thing he’d ever tasted. His kiss made her think of the night they’d spent together, of naked, entwined limbs and skin sliding against skin. It made lust fire up in her belly and want it again.
Christian broke the kiss and she staggered back against the table, her eyes slightly unfocused. He gave her a cocky grin—so very Christian. He understood the kind of effect he had on her and he loved it.
Michael stood not far away, fists clenched and a dark look in his eyes. She wasn’t sure if it was jealousy that made him look that way or pure, flat-out desire. Something in the pit of her stomach told her it was a combination of both and she wondered what would come of that. Michael was intelligent and sensitive, but he had a dangerous edge to him too. Christian was tough and protective, funny and kind, and, overall, less complicated. Her gaze met Michael’s and held. His pupils seemed to go larger and darker. It made her heart thump in her chest.
Suddenly she needed to be away from both of them, away from this confusion and the heavy feeling that had entered the room—lust and expectation. She needed to be away from all of it.
Ripping her gaze from Michael’s, she turned and left the room. She went for the foyer and her jacket. She could head down to the bar for a few hours, drown herself in work. Anything to distract her from this situation she’d been thrust into.
Michael reached her with preternatural speed, took her by the arm and whirled her to face him. He yanked her up against his chest and whispered against her mouth, “Give in to us.”
She shuddered against him. Had they planned this? Had they come over to the house tonight with exactly this in mind? A double seduction? If it had been any other men but these, she could resist, but she’d already proven twice over that she had no defenses against them—as a double threat they were surely her downfall.
“Give in to you?” she whispered back. “Like I have a choice.”
“You do have a choice. Tell us to leave and we will.”
A shadow had fallen nearby. Christian had followed them into the foyer.
She bowed her head, resting it on Michael’s shoulder, trying to imagine the words stop or leave coming out of her mouth…and failing. “God, what is wrong with me? I want you two so much. Both of you.”
“That’s natural. It’s as the council said it would be. You’re our mate.” Michael’s voice rumbled through his chest as he spoke. “You are ours, Kylie, as we are yours.”
Christian moved to her other side. “This is how it could be,” he whispered in her ear, making goose bumps erupt all over her body. “You could have both of us, Kylie, both of us to love you.”
She squeezed her eyes shut and felt the truth of that statement through every fiber of her body, yet all she wanted was to deny it and push them both away. She had never felt so out of control in her entire life and she hated it.
Christian forced her to look up at him. “What’s going through your beautiful head now, baby? What are you thinking?”
Her breath shuddered out of her. She didn’t say what she was thinking—I’m not worthy of this—because if she did, she’d cry. “The last time I was in a relationship—”
“That man became a monster. You blame yourself for that, I know.”
Damn it. A tear rolled down her cheek.
Michael cupped her chin and focused his gaze on hers. “Christian and I are already monsters, Kylie. Can you live with that?” He stared down into her face for a long moment, then dipped his head and caught her lips against his. He slid them slowly over hers until her knees turned to butter.
Monsters, schmonsters… It didn’t matter what Michael was when he kissed her this way.
Dimly, she noted that the lights in the house flickered and then went out.
“What the…” breathed Christian.
Michael broke the kiss and she glanced out the window, expecting to see a storm. It wasn’t unusual that she would lose electricity when there was a lot of wind. It was still raining, but there wasn’t a breeze or a lightning strike in sight.
At the back of the house she heard the screen door slam…yet she, Michael and Christian were in the foyer at the front of the house.
Christian suddenly moved toward her in a protective gesture. “Do you smell that, Michael?”
“Fuck,” Michael said under his breath.
“What? What is it?” Although she thought she might already know. At the possibility, her stomach suddenly felt filled with cold lead.
“Take her,” Christian commanded, moving away from them. “Take her and protect her. You play defensive and I’ll go offensive.”
In the half light she could see that Christian’s form was rippling, shifting.
Then she got a whiff of something tainted on the air, something wrong. Unwashed human body mixed with animal. A being that should not be.
Louis.
Chapter Eight
Her stomach coiled into cold little knots. She thought all trace of humanity had been eaten up when the virus had taken Louis and turned him verdorben. But there could be only one explanation for why he had chosen to return to her tonight, after all these years. Somehow, he had learned about the proclamation and some part of him that still retained his humanity didn’t like it.
Michael growled low in his throat. She looked up to see that his fangs were out, gleaming in the pale light filtering in through the window. Before her, Christian was nearly transformed into the huge black wolf that was his other form. Hi
s clothing hung in strips on him, rent from the change in his size and shape. He made no sound of pain, but Kylie knew the process hurt.
Finally, an enormous black wolf stood in the middle of her foyer. He shook himself once, ridding himself of the scraps of clothing, looked back at her and Michael, then leapt through the doorway into the living room with one smooth, rippling move.
Somewhere at the back of the house, something growled. Christian answered with his own growl and Louis—it had to be him—snarled in response.
“Oh, God,” she breathed, her hand going to her mouth. “I can’t believe this is happening.” She gripped Michael’s arm. “Gun. I need my gun, right now.” She bolted up the stairs toward her bedroom. She couldn’t let Louis hurt Christian or Michael.
Memories slammed into her as she pounded up the stairs and ran into her bedroom, images of Louis how he used to be…and how he was now. Michael stood sentinel at the door as she flung her closet door open, grabbed the handgun on the top shelf and checked it for a cartridge.
Downstairs, furniture crashed amid a flurry of snarling and growling. Kylie dashed toward the door, but Michael caught her around the waist.
She fought him, trying to pull away. She was responsible for Louis being the way he was; it was her place to put him down. Tears streamed down her cheeks. This was her worst nightmare made real.
Michael was around fifty times stronger than she was. All he had to do was pick her up, turn around and walk back into the room. It didn’t matter how much she kicked and flailed. “Michael, let me go! I can’t let this happen. I can’t—”
He threw her down onto the bed. She looked up at him, seething, hand wrapped firmly around the gun’s handle.
Michael’s fangs were still out. The lines of his face looked brutal. “Christian can handle him. You’re staying with me so I can keep you safe.”
Downstairs, the sounds of battle reached a crescendo, making Kylie’s blood turn to icy slush in her veins. Something yelped and all went quiet.
She looked up at Michael, breathing heavily. “You better be right,” she rasped through a too-tight throat. “I will never forgive myself if something happens to Christian.”
